The Press., 1887-01-20
WASHINGTON LETTER.


 Washington, D. C., Jan. IS, 1887.
 Although the expected Irevenue reform fight failed to come off in congress this week, other important questions came to the front and resulted in more Legislation than probably months of tariff talk would have done. The house of representatives expressed itself overwhelmingly in favor of dignifying the department of agriculture with a seat in the cabinet, and it expressed itself almost as positively in favor of extir- pating the hierarchy at Salt Lake City.
 The great question of interstate com merce still hangs fire in the senate, and the more it Is discussed and the more ob- jections raised to it are considered, the more the unbiased mind is impressed with the necessity of making it law. But, as senator recently said, 1t is must be adopt ed or rejected as whole. The pending bill is the result of a struggle of ten years, and if it is rejected there is no telling when another bill can be brought to vote.
 It was intended that the debate on this measure should be finished on Thursday, but it was found that this would entail a night session, and as most of the senators expressed desire to attend the president s reception that evening, given in honor of the diplomatic corps, the vote was deferr- ed. The farmers congress, which has been in session at the agricultural depart ment for several days, appointed commit tees to wait upon the senate and house to urge the passage of the interstate com. merce bill, and other measures of interest to agriculturists.
 There was an interesting debate over the anti-polygamy bill on Wednesday, in the house, just before the measure passed the body. Congressman Taylor of Ohio, the member who represents the district to which MT. Garfield formerly belonged ,gave brief sketch of the establishment of the mormon church in Utah. Its friend, the legislature of Utah, he said. would moi strangle it, but congress must, and, fortu. nately, congress could. It had the lega power under the constitution, and it had the means at hand to exercise it.
 Mir. Taylor said, while this people and this church defied the moral sense of civi lization, and he was heartily in favor of the main features of this bill against them, l ( was unalterably opposed to one of its pro visions-that abolishing female suffrage in I the territory of Utah. He stood appalled, at the first suggestion of taking the elector al franchise from considerable class of peo pie accustomed to its use Would tho precedent here made be invoked hereafter and if so, in what direction
 Mir. Caine, the territorial delegate who represents the Mormons ill congress, de tended his constituents with great earnest ness, and his speech commanded close at tention from the floor as well as from the galleries. He said that the Mormons, al though they had suffered inoignities, in suits, ostracism, and islander for years had made the desert to blossom like gar den of flowers. He spoke of their piety and thrift, and pledged his word and hi' character, that the charges and the state ments upon which this legislation wa' based were without foundation in fact Mormonism, he held, would be swept away by the progress of events if God III his wisdom had so appointed.
 MT. Bennett, of North Carolina, who was opposed to this Legislation. and Messrs. Boswell of Wis, Tucker of Va, and Reed of Maine, who favored it, were the other speakers. MT. Reed was disposed to think the wisest course would be for congress to take complete control of Utah. And why that territory? Because body of re. liglonists there had taken possession of property belonging to the Uuited States. It was not only body of religionists, it was people that had polity. That was the keynote of the situation. They in. tended to people that territory exclusively with Mormons, and to segregate to them selves a portion of the property of the United States. Congress was to-day root ing out an unjust possession of the soil that belonged to the people. MT. Reed thought it was useless to call this bill an assault upon a religion. Polygamy was only one of the manifestations of a bad condition of society in Utah.
 Mir. Tucker, of Va, also contended that the territory of the United States did not belong to the first little squad of men who settled on it and said, "We are monarchs of all we survey" It was the duty oi congress to say it should not be monopo. lized by any claas of men, or by any church. He would vote against the bill if he thought there was one thing in it that trenched upon the conscience even of a mormon. Mr. Tucker, who was frequent ly applauded, had good deal to say about the nucleus of nation being in the homes of it's people. He thanked God there were still plenty of homes where one man and one woman loved each other supreme ly. That was the foundation of the bcdy polite. Without it there would not be a christian state fit to inhabit. In Utah, the heart of tho husband was ditfused among a number That was the basis of